King Minos
"The blind lord Minos holds court sniffing the blood of the wretched to expose their sins. His wheel spins them to damnation, punishments chosen to match the depths of their depravity." -'Pontius Pilate' "Who comes into my house of pain?" ''-'King Minos''' Overview King Minos was once the most powerful king of Crete. One day he failed to sacrifice the Cretan Bull to Poseidon. Angered by Minos' defiance, Poseidon impregnated Minos' wife with the Minotaur, and sent the Cretan Bull on a rampage. Strangely enough, the Bull's rampage was stopped by Hercules, who was present on the island to accomplish his 6th labor. With a hungry Minotaur in his palace, Minos instructed his chief architect, Daedalus, to build a Labrynth to imprison the beast. However the monster had a taste for human flesh, so Minos ordered seven youths to be sent as a sacrifice to the Minotaur. Among these youths was a boy named Theseus, he was the son of Poseidon and heir to the throne of Athens. When it was his turn to enter the Labrynth, Minos thought that Theseus' fate would be like the other youths. But Theseus was a fighter, when he reemerged he carried the Minotaur's head for all to see. Enraged and puzzled, Minos locked up Daedalus in a tower so that nobody would learn about this humiliation. Yet Daedalus' imagination helped him escape, but his son Icarus was so happy, he flew too close to the sun and drowned. Upon learning that Daedalus fled to Sicily, Minos set sail immediatly. During his stay he was relaxed, until Daedalus boiled him in his own bath. In death, Hades placed Minos as judge of the Underworld. Now as the temperamental, cynical judge of the dead, Minos dwells just beyond the Citadel of Limbo. He appears as a half serpent, half human demigod with a large crown on his head. He is also blind, relying on his senses of smell and touch to find his enemies. He judges those who have been damned by picking one person from a wall, smells their sins, and once he decides where they belong, he puts them on his wheel of torture, spins it and they are sent to their chosen circle. Dante Alighieri enters Minos' citadel as he sends a Suicidal to his fate. When Dante demands to know where Beatrice was taken, Minos judges Dante for his crimes and ends up attacking him. Minos is killed when Dante stabs his tongue onto a spike of his torture wheel and spins it, resulting in his face splitting in half. Movie Minos appears in the animated film, and is largely the same as he is in the game, though he is intially less interested in Dante's presence, only fighting him after being goaded by Dante. The fight is brief, and he is killed by his own wheel, which flings him out of his court, clearing the way for Dante to move on. With his death, damned souls flee from Minos's palace in an attempt to escape. It is unknown if they succeed, though Virgil remarks that Lucifer will not be pleased. Strategy thumb|right|300px|Dante vs. Minos The blind judge of the dead, King Minos is the boss for the Limbo level. By now you should be used to Dante’s inferno’s controls so king Minos shouldn’t be too hard once you have the knack of him. First of all, Minos’ attacks. His opening attack is to launch tentacles out of the ground. You can avoid these by simply moving in an erratic pattern, and then evading once they start popping up quickly. If a red orb appears to the left or right of the boss arena, use death’s scythe (the button will appear on the screen) to jumpout of the way of King Minos’ breath attack. The boss will also telegraph this attack by moving backwards away from the arena. Once King Minos has completed this breath attack, you can go on the offensive! This boss has no weak point, just walk up to his face and start attacking. After a few hits he will grab Dante and throw him to the floor- don’t worry just complete the quick time event and you won’t take any damage. You can try to dodge this tongue attack by jumping over it. Keep repeating this process, and eventually king Minos will rear up and clutch his face, exposing his underbelly. This is actually a weakspot of sorts (as close as this boss has anyway) so have Dante run up to it and execute his best attacks. If you have redemption, now is the time to use it. After doing some damage to Minos, he will summon some minions for Dante to fight. Kill them off and then start the boss fight process again from the beginning. Like most bosses, Minos will now develop a new attack. He will try to crush Dante with his fist. As a guide, just keep moving like you did with the tentacles, and if he corners you, evade. Minos will also try to sweep you off the arena- dodge this with a double jump. All fist attacks are clearly telegraphed. Eventually, you will be given the option to perform a quick time event. Do it, and then use the finisher on Minos’ hand to expose his underbelly again. Keep repeating the above, responding to each of Minos’ moves and attacking when you get a window. Eventually, the boss will collapse and you can perform another finisher on his tongue, ending the limbo level and the boss battle against Minos! Quotes "Who comes into my house of pain?" "Come before me!" "Her love can't save you!" "Virtue means nothing to you!" "Your faith was cast away!" "I know exactly what your future holds!" "You can't hide your sins!" "I'm well acquainted with your treachery!" "Your Beatrice will never be returned!" "You slaughtered hundreds!" "And you thought a crusade would offer you grace?!" "I can smell you." "Let me sentence you!" "Salvation is not within your reach!" "You've cheated Death once already!" "Your crimes are unpardonable!" "Damnation will be your final Reward!" Trivia *In Greek mythology, King Minos was one of the three judges of the Underworld, along with King Rhadamanthus, and King Aeacus. *In "The Inferno", Dante placed Minos at the end of Limbo, to judge the souls of the damned. *You can hear Minos judging the damned which circle of hell they go to, yelling out, "Lust!", "Gluttony!", "Greed!", "Anger!", "Heresy!", "Violence!", "Fraud!", or "Treachery!" *He is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson in the animated film, who also does the voice of Phlegyas but is limited to roars and grunts when voicing Phlegyas. *Minos appears to be wearing the corpses of shades as jewelry (a necklace and a bracelet on his arm). Given his sadism, it could be possible that he may have used the shades as jewelry in order to add insult to injury or for cosmetic purposes. Gallery Dantes-inferno-1st-boss-king-minos.jpg Minos, Meet Scythe.jpg Minos-Stab.jpg Minos Eye Poke.jpg Minos-Breath.jpg Minos Up.jpg Minos-Tongue.jpg Minos' Court.jpg|Concept art of King Minos' court. Category:Characters Category:Bosses